


Blade please come home

by hevans814



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura plays Piano, Also others do, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, M/M, Music, Post Season 4, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Tags will come, and sings, so watch out for that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-07 20:42:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12849120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hevans814/pseuds/hevans814
Summary: based on the song "Christmas (Baby please come home)" by Darlene Lovetakes place post season 4contains klance/leithtraditions old and newthe best space holiday season ever





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> finished before the 23rd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the snow's comin' down  
> I'm watchin' it fall  
> lots of people around  
> baby, please come home

****Lance tilted his head to the side. Something wasn't quite right. He turned to Pidge, who sat next to him on the couch.

"Pidge, what doesn't... seem right?" he asked, gesturing his arms vaguely. Lance felt confusion settle into the lines of his face. Not altogether unfamiliar, in fact, annoyingly too common, but still, not good for his gorgeous complexion. He needed answers, and speedy ones.

"What do you mean, Lance?" Pidge glanced up at him, adjusting her glasses.

"I don't know. But what's wrong with this picture?" Lance held up his fingers in a rectangle and peered through it with one eye like he was looking through a camera.

"I'm not sure what that means..."

Lance sighed and went back to his thoughts. The room fell back to silence, only interrupted by a page turn in Pidge's book. Lance briefly thought about stealing it out of her hands so he could see what it was. Why hadn't she let him see it earlier? Strange.

He looked around the room again. Yep, something was definitely off about this place. It wasn't the room itself. Same as ever.

It wasn't the decorations, although they were a touch rudimentary. They had been so lucky to find a planet with trees that resembled Frasier firs! And everyone had chipped in to make the place special. Allura and the mice had meticulously arranged various figurines and strung garland just about everywhere, Coran had teetered dangerously on a ladder to string lights in all the places not already covered. Shiro had waged an electric war against the outlets and many feet of lights. Hunk had opted to bake some cookies to avoid the opportunity to get roped into Shiro's illumination fiasco a second time, although he did hang up everyone's lion slippers on the mantle of the space fireplace. Pidge and Lance had decorated the tree, Lance taking his time to remember each ornament and which planet they'd got it from, Pidge bouncing around hanging everything up and then disappearing into her space phone for stretches of time. In all, it was a great experience decorating the living room of the castle ship. Although it did make Lance a little homesick.

If not the decorations, then what? Why did Lance feel like something was missing? Christmas was in a week, and he felt prepared enough. Hunk and Coran were combining traditional holiday recipes from the group. Lance was in the process of writing down song lyrics so they could teach the Alteans some Christmas carols. He had presents for Hunk, Coran, Allura, Keith...

That was it. Lance stifled a little gasp.

Keith wasn't here. That's really what was missing. Lance hadn't realized that Keith really meant so much to him. Enough that the space family wasn't complete without him here. Lance needed to think about this some more.

"...Lance?" Pidge looked at Lance, eyes askew. Lance wondered if he'd just blabbed all of that out loud. He said as much to Pidge, who stifled a smile and told him she had just wanted to know if he knew what time it was.

"Oh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merry quiznack


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're singing Deck The Halls  
> But it's not like Christmas at all  
> 'Cause I remember when you were here  
> And all the fun we had last year

She looked around, got up, and left the room. She walked through the long hallway with purpose. Left, another left, up the stairs. Through the door, the right. Silently padding across the floor. Through another door, and she let out a little breath. 

Allura sat down in front of the piano once again. She pulled out the well- worn book from the back of her bodice and set it on the stand. She had been studying the music while eating breakfast this morning, and she had hastily shoved it away as Shiro and Hunk came into the dinning room. 

She wasn't entirely sure why. 

When Lance had insisted they buy the small piano that was in front of her now, Allura never figured that she would form such a deep connection to this instrument. It was amazing, how humans had found this way to speak their souls, much more than just words alone, and often without words at all. To communicate something deeper...

They had been at the "Space Mall", as the kids called it. Lance and Pidge had insisted that they travel back to Terra, an Earth- themed novelty shop. Allura had joined them, of course; she was interested in learning about Earth’s culture, and Lance and Pidge's excitement had been contagious. When they walked in, Lance had immediately seen the piano across the store and begun admiring it. He told her he had fond memories of his family playing and singing, especially at Christmas. Allura could tell that Lance was feeling a little homesick these days. 

Lance had begun to look through various books of music, and Allura looked through them with him in wonder. Lance had started showing Allura how to plunk out the notes and read the music right there in the shop, and that was that. Although Shiro questioned the purchase of a piano (and ...several... books) on a supply run in the middle of a space war, Lance and Allura were an unstoppable force. Allura though Shiro was perhaps a little too surprised Allura was so firmly with Lance on this to properly protest. 

And so the piano was given a home in this room. Lance played with enthusiasm, and had shown Allura the basics. Pidge would occasionally plunk on the notes, and record them in loops to make electronic songs. After a few weeks, though, the piano was mostly forgotten. Even Lance visited less and less frequently. 

For Allura, it was the opposite. The more she played, the more she needed to play. She was transported by the music. Allura was shy about it, though. She didn't let the others know about the hours she spent in the piano room. Sometimes, it felt too personal. So she didn't tell anyone that she got good. Better than Pidge, better than Lance, even. And if she picked up a few song books every once in a while at Terra, who was to know? And she sang. And she sang, and she played the piano, and Allura loved it. And she felt the music in her heart. 

Her current mission was to learn the songs of a Christmas book she had picked up at a space bodega two weeks ago. She really enjoyed the Christmas music. Her favorite song to play so far was "Good King Wenceslas". The king reminded her of her father, which made her feel warm inside. She changed the words to "Good King Alfor Altea on the feast of Zelthn". 

As Allura flicked through the pages to practice "It came upon the Midnight Clear," a page fell out of the book. She picked it up to see that it was a complicated- looking piece of music called "Schubert Impromptu No. 4, Op. 90". Allura felt a need right then, deep in her, to learn it. She began to play. She played for hours. 

Later that day, as she was eating dinner, Allura realized her fingers were sore and stiff. This was certainly going to be a challenge. But she felt compelled to learn this amazingly intricate piece of music. From what she had played so far, it was beautiful. And she knew that-

"Allura." 

"What?" she looked up, startled out of her thoughts, to find most everyone at the table looking at her quizzically. Shiro, who had spoken, had a wry smile on his face. 

"Are you paying attention?" he asked. Allura winced a bit.

"Sorry, everyone. I was a little caught up in my thoughts."

Lance continued talking about his Christmas plans. 

"And I wrote down the words to some Christmas songs we can teach Coran and Allura!" he smiled. Allura smiled back, even though she secretly likely knew the words to most of the Christmas songs out there already. She let her hands fall underneath the table and balled and un-balled her fingers to stretch them. 

"If you're done, I can take your bowl, Allura" Lance offered with his arm outstretched.

"Oh, thank you Lance." Allura handed him her bowl with a smile and started telling an eagar- looking Hunk about Altea's winter holiday traditions. 

Lance and Pidge, who collected all the dishes from the table, set off to the kitchen for their dishwashing duties. Pidge, he found, was an adequate-at-best dish dryer, but an excellent storyteller, and almost as excited as Lance about Christmas, which was a little surprising to him at first. Apparently, the Holts had a whole slew of traditions which made for funny and heartwarming tales told over the space sink. 

Pidge got out some towels and hopped onto the counter. Lance just sighed and assumed his usual position at the sink armed with a sponge and the pink sink gloves. Pidge told Lance about the time her father dressed up as a Santa and got chased through the yard by her grandparent's Scottish terrier George at night. 

"...and then he fell over the mulch pile. Of course, Matt and I didn't hear about it until later, but it was still the funniest thing," she laughed. Lance smiled fondly. He didn't get to see her this joyful very often, and it made him happy. 

"I can't wait for Christmas," she sighed with a goofy smile. Lance’s own face mirrored hers. He felt a warmth in his heart, for the excitement, and the 

"Me too.” They fell into a peaceful silence, each reminiscing about their past Christmases. 

“It’s going to be tough,” Pidge looked at Lance, and he saw the same twinge of homesickness reflected there in her eyes. 

“We’re a family, though,” said Lance, “We’ll support each other.” Lance meant it. He really did consider Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Coran, Shiro, and Keith his second family. “Although I wish all of us were here. It feels weird that Keith is with the Blade during our first ever space Christmas.” 

“Oh. Yeah. I miss Matt too. I hope he gets back from his meeting with the rebel forces in time.

“What? I don’t MISS Keith! That’s ridiculous, I mean totally-“ Lance abruptly began washing the dishes with renewed fervor. 

“Calm down, Lance.” Pidge looked at him pointedly. 

“Oh, just dry the dishes,” Lance grumbled. 

“Hey! You’re still washing too fast!”

“Ah, Pidge, the Tech Architect, the Gadget Goddess, can’t even keep up with The Mighty Lance’s dish washing skills!”

“I can keep up just fine!”

“Oh yeah? Catch this one!” 

Time seemed to slow down just a bit as the bowl soared through the air. Pidge did indeed catch it, but fell off the counter in the process, taking down Lance with her and landing on top of him. The bowl rolled just out of her reach on the floor, only to be picked up a moment later. Two sets of eyes looked up to find Shiro, eyebrow raised, setting the no- longer clean plate back into the sink. 

“You two sure have an interesting way of tackling washing the dishes.” The two couldn’t help but laugh at that, and the situation they had found themselves in. Shiro picked them off the ground and helped put away the last few dishes. He smiled to himself as he heard bits and pieces of plans to “steal back” Keith and Matt. He decided he really didn’t want to know. Plausible deniability, and all that.

After the dishes were done, Lance and Pidge bounced away to work on their “heist”, and Shiro headed for the living area to continue reading the book Allura and Coran had recommended to him. It was apparently an Altean classic, but Shiro had yet to get fully immersed in the tale of a harrowed youth with too much family going on an adventure to get rid of some magical junk. But maybe that’s just him.

As Shiro sat down and picked up his book, he noticed a brown worn- looking book underneath the side table, tucked almost out of sight. He picked it up, turning over the soft cover in his hands. In the bottom right corner he saw the engraving ’Holt’. He ran his fingers over it, and thought about what it could be, and why it had been hidden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merry quiznack


End file.
